The following is a fishing expedition of the type I don't like because it involves excessive interpretation and stretching the bounds of reality when examining the Zodiac case. But I'm going to do it anyway. Rubislaw32, a regular contributor to this site, highlighted the fact that the Zodiac Killer had used a 1962 UX48 Abraham Lincoln Postal Card on March 22nd 1971 when he mailed the Pines postcard, that most (but not all) believe was a cryptic reference to the disappearance of Donna Ann Lass on September 6th 1970. Why did the Zodiac Killer dig nine years into the past and select a postcard to mail a communication in 1971, unless it was chosen for good reason?

The pasted clues on the reverse side of the postcard included "sought victim 12", "Sierra Club", "Peek through the pines", "pass Lake Tahoe areas" and "around in the snow". But did the Zodiac Killer give us any extra clues on the front of the postcard that pointed toward the missing nurse? If the punch-hole on the reverse side of the card was depicting the burial or deposition site of Donna Ann Lass, could there be a clue to this on the front side of the card by the punch-hole, that somehow indicated her name?

The punch-hole on the front face of the postcard was positioned where you would normally place a name and return address, but the Bay Area murderer just wrote "Zodiac", with the letter "d" being touched by the north prong of the crosshairs. On the right side was the Abraham Lincoln 4c stamp. The initials of Abraham Lincoln are "AL". So reading from left to right we have "DAL", which are the initials of Donna Ann Lass. At the bottom of the postcard the Zodiac Killer wrote "attn. Paul averly = chronicLe". The two things that stood out were the use of the letter "L" in Paul Avery and the capitalized "L" in Chronicle. Therefore, from top down we have the "DL" of Donna Lass. Although this is probably another case of seeing patterns where they don't exist, I wanted to discover if there was any connection to the punch-hole (burial site) and the name of Donna Ann Lass. There is a way to get "DLF" (Donna Lass Fourteen) from the Halloween card envelope but I'm not going there, because that would almost certainly be seen as stretching the fabric of reality.  

This is the third and final instalment re-examining the Pines postcard (March 22nd 1971), and determining whether the pasted "Sierra Club" and punch-hole were really designed to point us toward the deposition or burial site of Donna Lass, using the measurement of inches and a map scale as the conduit. This idea was rejected by some commenters on VT Squire's Reddit post regarding my analysis of the postcard as a directional tool.

​Wolf4968 stated "Does anyone really think the Zodiac, or the hoaxer/card sender, sat and measured cards by the hundredth inch, thinking, "There's the skeleton key to this whole thing, that they'll never figure out!!!".? Really?" The Zodiac Killer took the time to create at least 30 communications and mail them to the newspapers, he encrypted several messages in ciphers and codes, using a period 19 shift in his design of the 340 cipher, and mailed a Phillips 66 Map and code, challenging us with "P.S. The Mt. Diablo code concerns Radians + # inches along the radians" so we could unearth his bomb. So does Wolf4968 think that the Zodiac Killer would really sit down and measure the distance in inches between two points on a postcard using a standard classroom ruler, that would take but a few seconds? 

The more important question is determining whether the punch-hole on the Pines postcard was intended to identify a deposition or burial location, and was its positioning relative to the pasted "Sierra Club" of any significance? What we do know is that the Clair Tappaan Lodge "Sierra Club" on Donner Pass Road is directly in line (on the east-west axis) with the location of Chubb Lake where the jawbone of Donna Lass was found on December 31st 1985. The pasted "Sierra Club" on the postcard is also perfectly aligned with the punch-hole on the east-west axis. The distance between the center of the punch-hole and pasted "Sierra Club" was 2.19 inches (2 3/16 inches}, which equated to 14.02 miles using the map scale of 6.4 miles to the inch. This was the distance (by crow) between Clair Tappaan Lodge and the location of Donna's remains near Chubb Lake (to within a few hundred meters).

​It must be noted that after the jawbone and teeth were discovered on December 31st 1985, Sheriff Donald A. Nunes stated that a more detailed search would be conducted on January 4th 1986 looking for more remains at the 5,300 feet elevation. Later in January a skull was discovered near to where the jawbone was found.

The area close to the eastern side of Chubb Lake sits at an elevation between 5,300 and 5,400 feet, so matches the elevation described by Sheriff Nunes and the location of the jawbone described in the newspaper as "found in 2 inches of snow, a mile northeast of Interstate 80 by Melvin Bennett, who along with his son was enroute to fish at the reservoir". Yuba Gap sits at an elevation of 5,790 feet, Yuba Pass sits at 6,710 feet and Emigrant Gap sits at 5,200 feet. Despite these observations, we need to go further and see if the Zodiac Killer did anything else to support the notion that he identified burial or deposition sites using directional markers.

Sometime in May 1971, the Zodiac Killer mailed the 148 character cipher and letter, using language straight out of the Ed Gein handbook, when he wrote "I will skin three little kids and make a suit from the skin", and "I will send a patch of human skin if their is some left over". Ed Gein, known as "The Butcher of Plainfield", dug up corpses from the cemetery to make an array of ghastly household objects from human skin, and began to fashion a "woman suit" so "he could become his dead mother and literally crawl into her skin". So when the Zodiac Killer threatened to "skin three kids and make a suit from the skin", it is almost certain he was referring to the murdered Kathy Snoozy, Debra Furlong and Kathy Bilek, who, he was not only claiming as his victims, but who he was threatening to dig up from the cemetery, just like Ed Gein previously.

This theme of burial sites would continue on July 13th 1971, when the Zodiac Killer mailed the Monticello card with pasted text, stating "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". The postcard was referring to Kathy Bilek, who was stabbed in the Villa Montalvo woods in Saratoga (near Monticello in San Jose) on April 11th 1971. Kathy Snoozy was buried in the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose. The Zodiac Killer used the phonetic namesake of Kathy Bilek and the location of Monticello to identify the burial location of Kathy Snoozy, who he had previously claimed alongside Debra Furlong on November 8th 1969.

​Somebody would later visit the cemetery housing Kathy Snoozy on September 18th 1973 and remove a tombstone from the grounds, placing it at the front gates with the pseudonym "Zodiac" scrawled on it. We don't know for certain whose tombstone it was, but it doesn't take much guessing. This person had desecrated a gravesite at the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery, but thankfully they fell short of removing body parts from the depths. 

When the Zodiac Killer wrote in the Los Angeles letter on March 13th 1971, stating "The reason I'm writing to the Times is this, They don't bury me on the back pages like some of the others", I am not sure he was aware that "burial" was to become a feature of all his next three communications. The overlapping features in the Pines postcard and Monticello card are fairly obvious from the standpoint of directional markers. The Pines postcard contained "pass Lake Tahoe areas", "Sierra Club" and "around in the snow". The Monticello card had "in the woods". and "near Monticello".

We know that Kathy Bilek's body was found "in the woods near Monticello", so it's likely the body of Donna Lass would have been found "around in the snow" near the "Sierra Club" had she been discovered in March 1971. The remains of Donna Lass were found approximately 14 miles from the Sierra Club. The remains of Kathy Snoozy were buried nearly 10 miles from the Villa Montalvo woods. The Monticello card was identifying the location of Kathy Bilek's body in the Villa Montalvo woods in Saratoga, by using the Monticello gravesite of Kathy Snoozy as the directional tool. The Pines postcard also contained two key markers by having the "Sierra Club" location and the punch-hole to identify the "burial" site of Donna Lass. Hopefully, this goes someway to showing how "burial locations" and "body sites" would become the main focus of the Zodiac Killer in 1971. The 148 character cipher/letter and Monticello card were simply continuing the theme of the Pines postcard, mailed on March 22nd 1971. If the Monticello card is ever released to the public it will be curious to see what positions relative to one another the Zodiac Killer pasted the wording "in the woods" and "Monticello", and the distance between them. Or whether it was unnecessary in this instance because he named Monticello.  

A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE PINES POSTCARD [PART ONE)
A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE PINES POSTCARD [PART TWO]

The newspaper cutting from 1986 describing the discovery of Donna Lass' remains stated that Melvin Bennett on his way to Lake Valley Reservoir at Yuba Gap discovered the remains one mile northeast of the I-80. In other words, while traveling to Yuba Gap he discovered the remains one mile northeast of this location. Yuba Gap is situated on Interstate 80. The red arrow in the image below points to the approximate location of her remains (jawbone). The red cross in the image below is the position 14.02 miles from the "Sierra Club" of Clair Tappaan Lodge. This was the distance found in the Pines postcard between the pasted "Sierra Club" and punch-hole (body location) in the previous article. This means that the estimated location of her body, shown by measurements in the Pines postcard, was only 1,000 meters away from where the jawbone of Donna Lass was ultimately found. The remains of Donna Lass were found close to Chubb Lake Road, Forty-Niner Way and Gonelson Canyon Road, the latter of which sits approximately 500 meters from the jawbone location described in the newspaper. All accessible from Highway 20. We have to note that the description of "one mile northeast" is obviously an approximation by the newspaper. It could be, as an example, anywhere from 0.7 to 1.3 miles from the I-80 at Yuba Gap. The word "northeast" can also be interpreted to some extent. Slight changes to the angle and distance could make the location identified from the Pines card calculation slightly more accurate (or less so). Either way, the proximity is noteworthy.

Although these calculations were done with hindsight, had they been presented before the discovery and identification of the remains of Donna Lass, they would still be rejected. If I had said in 2020 that body parts of Donna Lass will eventually be found just below Chubb Lake based on calculations involving the Pines postcard - and in 2023 they were shown to have been found just 1,000 meters away from my prediction - what do you think people would have said? They would have said "coincidence" and dismissed the findings as sheer luck. This may well be correct, but what if it wasn't. It would prove that the designer of the Pines postcard created it with purpose and the full knowledge of Donna Lass' "burial site".

A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE PINES POSTCARD [PART ONE)
A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE PINES POSTCARD [PART THREE]

Several months ago I analysed the Pines postcard to see if the punch-hole and pasted "Sierra Club" text were used by the author of the postcard to show the burial or disposal site of Donna Lass, who was last seen at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino on September 6th 1970. Because the author had pasted the words "around in the snow" upside down, it gave me the idea to rotate the postcard through 180 degrees and measure the distance from the edge of the pasted "Sierra Club" (Clair Tappaan Lodge) and the center of the punch-hole. The remains of Donna Lass were discovered somewhere by Camp Spaulding or Yuba Gap, which were perfectly aligned with Clair Tappaan Lodge on the east-west axis, just like the punch-hole and "Sierra Club" on the postcard. I made the mistake in the earlier article of assuming the postcard was the US standard size of 5.8 X 4.2 inches. The postcard used by the author was a USPS Abraham Lincoln 4 Cent Blank Postcard that measured 5 9/16 by 3 1/4 inches (5.56 by 3.25 inches). 

I really don't mind individuals challenging claims made on this website, but am highly suspicious of people like VT Squire, who has consistently trashed everything I've ever written, with little to no exception. So in response to his Reddit article picking apart my analysis of the Pines postcard (and in the interest of fairness), I have decided to analyse his claims, without bias, that my measurements and conclusions were incorrect in my previous article - from which he correctly pointed out some flaws. His analysis of the postcard width using a crude scale and pixel count from border to border was 5.39 inches (well inside my assessment of 5.80 inches). Therefore, in reality, the distance between the punch-hole center and "Sierra Club" was 2.122 inches according to VT Squire, giving us a distance of 13.58 miles (2.122 multiplied by the map scale of 6.4 miles/inch). My measurement of 15.3 miles west of Clair Tappaan Lodge to the location of the body (or to the center of punch-hole) was nearly 2 miles off according to VT Squire. However, the historical records show that this postcard was 5 9/16 or 5.56 inches wide, not the 5.39 inches calculated by VT Squire. But he was closer than me.        

The above image was taken from a seller on Ebay who provided a handy scale next to the ​USPS Abraham Lincoln 4 Cent Blank Postcard. I checked numerous other sites regarding this postcard and its exact measurement was 5 9/16 inches in width (5.56 inches). Less than my original estimate by 0.24 inches, but 0.17 inches more than that given by VT Squire. I then took the image used by VT Squire (with small scale) and color tinted the edge to define the exact size of the postcard beyond the pasted advertisement. I then superimposed this image exactly over an original of the blank postcard and placed a ruler from one edge to the other measuring 5 9/16 inches (5.56 inches). This enabled me to measure the distance between the center of the punch-hole to the edge of the "Sierra Club" pasting. It measured 2 3/16 inches (2.19 inches). To get the distance in miles I had to multiply 2.19 by the 6.4 inches/mile map scale (6.4 X 2.19) = 14.02 miles. Therefore, the distance between Clair Tappaan Lodge and Camp Spaulding/Yuba Gap where the remains were found, should be 14.02 miles if the postcard was an accurate representation of her final resting place. The distance of 14.02 miles west of Clair Tappaan Lodge lands slightly south of Chubb Lake, just over a mile shy of Camp Spaulding, and 400 meters shy of Yuba Gap. For all intents and purposes, the distance in miles between the pasted "Sierra Club" and punch-hole of 14.02 miles, is where the remains of Donna Lass were found in 1985/1986. The punch-hole (not the center) does extend to 2 5/16 inches (14.78 miles), which travels beyond Yuba Gap and to the edge of Camp Spaulding, that lies south of Lake Spaulding. 

VT Squire's analysis was pretty accurate and forced me to reassess my original article regarding the deposition site of Donna Lass. But his claims that I attempt to manipulate data to achieve a desired result is false. If I make mistakes I will endeavour to correct them, as shown by this re-examination. Hopefully, he will now do the same in his Reddit post.. 

A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE PINES POSTCARD [PART TWO]
A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE PINES POSTCARD [PART THREE]

Although much of the following has been covered before, I feel it is necessary to re-examine certain elements of the Donna Lass case, a 25-year-old woman, who worked as a nurse at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino in Stateline, Nevada, and was last seen at this location on September 6th 1970. Sixteen years later, in 1985/1986, some of her remains were found near Camp Spaulding and Yuba Gap, but were only belatedly identified as her in December 2023. This breaking news caused a major stir in the Zodiac Killer community with renewed hope - but as happens in many cases - this awakened story has effectively disappeared from the discussion forums once again, and an unspoken resignation has returned that no further developments will be forthcoming. One of the key questions surrounding her murder was the question of Zodiac involvement, which will be examined here.

Still persisting to this day, some Zodiac sleuths are still claiming that the individual who created the Pines postcard and mailed it to the San Francisco Chronicle on March 22nd 1971, was insinuating that Donna Lass was their twelfth victim. However, the postcard never claimed Donna Lass as victim number 12 on March 22nd 1971, only that they "sought" her when she had the potential to become victim number 12. The Zodiac Killer claimed 10 victims on April 20th 1970 and 12 victims on June 26th 1970, when Donna Lass was still living and working in San Francisco for much of this time.

She had left for her new job at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino on or around June 5th 1970. Her savings account at the Bank of America located at 3701 Balboa Street (close to where she lived at 4122 Balboa Street) had remained dormant since early June. So if the Zodiac Killer had "sought" Donna Lass as victim number 12 in San Francisco, then he had trailed or stalked her between April 20th 1970 and June 5th 1970. The Dragon card mailed on April 28th 1970 showed no movement in the victim count, so this window could potentially narrow from April 28th 1970 to June 5th 1970. If this were the case, then the Zodiac Killer had a maximum of 39 days in which Donna Lass could have been "sought" as victim number 12. The fact that Donna Lass worked and lived close to the Presidio Heights murder of Paul Stine, at a time when she had the potential to become the Zodiac Killer's twelfth victim, certainly wasn't lost on the designer of the Pines card. By fashioning a postcard that combined both South Lake Tahoe and San Francisco, its creator was attempting to convince law enforcement that there was a connection between the Zodiac Killer and the missing nurse, navigating through two states and lasting several months.

If Donna Lass was killed by somebody she knew, then creating a Pines postcard shifting the attention toward the Zodiac Killer could be seen as beneficial to the murderer. However, this postcard was mailed 6 1/2 months after the nurse went missing, so any benefit gained by such a move would have drastically diminished. You would expect somebody hoping to focus attention toward the Zodiac Killer and away from them, to have crafted the postcard in the early part of the investigation by overtly claiming her murder, not insinuating this in a cryptic communication the following year. Also, if the phone caller to the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino on September 7th/8th was the murderer of Donna Lass (and author of the Pines postcard), he could easily have implicated the Zodiac Killer by phone on any date between September 6th 1970 and March 22nd 1971, but we know of no "Zodiac Killer" calls between these dates.

The creator of the Pines postcard didn't just fashion any old communication, they took the time to add a "Forest Pines" advertisement onto face of the postcard and searched for relevant directional text in the form of newspaper cuttings to paste onto it, while punching a hole in the top right corner and scalloping all four sides. Then they acquired the knowledge to know that Donna Lass would have been "sought" as victim 12 in San Francisco at the appropriate time she lived and worked there. This person placed some considerable thought into the design of this postcard, unlikely to have been created by somebody attempting to shift the disappearance of Donna Lass toward the Zodiac Killer, who could have done so with far less effort. The time and effort, along with the subtlety employed in the creation of this communication, is something we know from previous Zodiac correspondence. 

This subtlety was clear to see, when four months after the arrival of the Pines postcard, the Zodiac Killer mailed the Monticello card on July 13th 1971 claiming the murder of Kathy Bilek on April 11th 1971, again using a retrospective victim total. The pasted text read "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". The Zodiac Killer was retrospectively claiming he "sought" Kathy Bilek before her murder, just as he had done with Donna Lass from San Francisco to South Lake Tahoe. If he didn't murder Kathy Bilek when using this tactic, what are the chances that he killed Donna Lass but was telling the truth on this occasion? To establish whether the Zodiac Killer knew Donna Lass from San Francisco and/or South Lake Tahoe enough to trail her from one state to another, we have to return to the phone call received by security guard, Gordon Petrovich, at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino on September 7th/8th 1970. We have to determine if the phone caller knew Donna Lass to some extent, or was a complete stranger. The following section is taken from a previous article.     

It is fairly obvious that the story of the mysterious phone call to the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino didn't originate from the police, so its origin must have come from the killer of Donna Lass for the following reasons. The security guard at the casino, Gordon Petrovich, claimed he received a phone call from somebody calling themselves Mr. Davis on either September 7th or 8th, who stated Donna Lass had been called out of town for a family illness. If Gordon Petrovich had murdered Donna Lass, it would be totally ridiculous to pretend he received a phone call from Mr. Davis about an illness in the Lass family, that he knew would be denied later by the landlord of Donna Lass, Nick Davis. This could only have served to draw suspicion upon himself. Also, why would Nick Davis ring Gordon Petrovich and report a family illness that never was, if he had murdered Donna Lass? Once the family illness story was found to be fake, likewise, Nick Davis would have brought suspicion upon himself. Neither of these two men would have had anything to gain by fabricating a story of illness in the family of Donna Lass, that would eventually be found out to be a lie. 

When Donna Lass began working at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino in June 1970 it would have been her responsibility to supply the casino with her contact details (phone number and/or current address), and encumbent upon her, to acquire the contact details (phone number) of the casino in case she needed to ring them in the event of unforeseen circumstances, such as an illness to herself, family illness, accident or medical emergency  By September 6th 1970, this most certainly would have been done. If Donna Lass had really received an urgent message from her family because of an illness, what would have been the appropriate response - waste valuable time trying to locate her landlord, Nick Davis, asking him to ring the casino on her behalf - or simply making the phone call to the casino herself by using a public payphone or asking to use her landlord's phone? If the relations of Donna Lass did have an illness in the family and only had the phone number of Nick Davis by way of contacting her, he would have then made contact with Donna Lass, who would have rang her family back enquiring about the gravity of the situation, before contacting the casino. Any phone call received by Gordon Petrovich of the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino, on behalf of Donna Lass, makes little sense. The only person who had anything to gain by reporting a family illness on behalf of Donna Lass, is an individual who knew that Donna Lass was incapable of making the phone call herself, because she was either under duress at the time, or dead.   

According to Jo Anne Goettsche, who was visiting Donna Lass during this period, she had no way of contacting Donna Lass by phone when she arrived at the casino and found her friend absent. Therefore, Donna Lass had no phone in her apartment. But this still doesn't explain the obvious path Donna Lass should have taken if she had somehow received a message from her family about an illness. She would have notified her workplace by using the nearest convenient public or private phone. Or made the call en route to South Dakota (apparently without her vehicle). If the family of Donna Lass had wanted to contact her in an emergency, what phone number would Donna have given them? She would have given them either the phone number of Larry & Ann Lowe (where she previously lived), the Monte Verdi apartment landlord (if she had relayed this to her family yet) and the casino. Or any combination of all three.

Donna Lass had just moved into the Monte Verdi apartments, so how likely is it that the family of Donna Lass had the phone number of the landlord, Nick Davis, to even ring him about a family illness? And even if they had, why would Nick Davis bypass Donna Lass and inform the casino of the family illness himself, rather than informing Donna Lass of the family illness and her taking responsibility in notifying the casino?

The mysterious phone call using the name of Mr. Davis, which he denied was him, must have come from a murderer familiar enough with Donna Lass to know the name of her landlord. Another question that must be asked - is how many people (then or today) would know the name of their friend's landlord? Taking into account that Donna Lass had just moved into the Monte Verdi apartment complex, there may have been some friends that would have known her plans, but how many of these friends would have known that her landlord was called Mr. Davis? One such friend (or casual acquaintance) that may have been privy to this information, would have been somebody who lived at the Monte Verdi apartments themselves. Possibly somebody who informed Donna Lass previously that the Monte Verdi apartments were a good place to live. Often, people move into future premises on the recommendations of others - usually friends they trust.

The Zodiac Killer was clearly familiar with San Francisco on some level, so it is feasible he could have known Donna Lass from the Letterman General Hospital where she worked, or from activities outside of her employment. He could have lived or worked close to her 4122 Balboa Street address - and chose Presidio Heights as a suitable location for his October 11th 1969 murder based on local knowledge.

​It is also possible that when Donna Lass went missing in South Lake Tahoe and the newspapers printed her previous employment at the very park the Zodiac Killer claimed he escaped into, the Bay Area murderer would almost certainly have known that linking himself to her disappearance was an opportunity too good to turn down. He must have calculated that investigators would forge the connection between South Lake Tahoe and San Francisco through her profession, and hopefully boost his credibility on March 22nd 1971.

​The delay between the Donna Lass disappearance and the arrival of the Pines postcard may have been an indication he wasn't her murderer. He could have waited 6 1/2 months to satisfy himself the young nurse wasn't just missing, or that her real murderer would likely not be found. On the other hand, it is possible he was unaware of the Donna Lass story until early 1971.

Establishing a connection between the Zodiac Killer and South Lake Tahoe in advance of Donna Lass' murder was further confused by several threatening phone calls (reported in the Sacramento Bee newspaper on December 15th 1969) aimed towards school buses from Incline Village and Tahoe City in November 1969. There may have been a fair number of hoax Zodiac calls throughout the years, but this person claimed to be the Zodiac Killer and threatened Incline Village by Lake Tahoe, nearly 1 1/2 years prior to the mailing of the Pines postcard which contained an advertisement of Incline Village. This, on its surface, appears to lend credence to the Zodiac Killer being responsible for the Pines postcard. Or, that he wasn't responsible for the 1969 threat and somehow gained access to the Sacramento Bee newspaper article after the fact (had kept the newspaper when bought, or kept a cutting in his possession from the time), or had it stored in his memory bank and decided in 1971 to choose anything he could find in the newspapers concerning Incline Village to paste onto his postcard, so as to cement a connection between both. By issuing a second malicious threat involving Incline Village, maybe the Zodiac Killer was hoping law enforcement would take his latest threat more seriously, just as he had done by adding "sought victim 12" onto the postcard and again linking himself back to activity in the Bay Area and vicinity.            

The murderer of Donna Lass, when traveling from South Lake Tahoe to the body deposition site (had this been his route),  bypassed innumerable earlier and more remote locations where he could have separated himself from her body, assuming she was dead. Yet he chose to select an area popular with campers, fishermen and hikers, which appeared far riskier. This may suggest a familiarity with the area of Camp Spaulding and Yuba Gap, because killers will often choose a deposition site based on knowledge and risk level, rather than areas they are totally unfamiliar with. The murderer of Donna Lass could have known pockets within the area of Camp Spaulding and Yuba Gap that presented minimal risk in darkness, despite it being a popular area with locals and tourists alike. This is an argument for "better the devil you know" over uncertainty. If this deposition site was chosen because the killer was a previous or frequent visitor to this location in Placer County, while simultaneously knowing the name of Donna Lass' landlord, we could be looking for somebody known to Donna Lass whose history is connected to this tourist destination. He may have stayed, drank or eaten at any of the several lodges or establishments that lay close to Camp Spaulding and Yuba Gap. He may even have visited this area with Donna Lass during the brief three months she lived at South Lake Tahoe. I certainly don't know with certainty, but I strongly suspect that the killer and victim in this case were known to one another, in absence of the Zodiac Killer.   

"Considering the fact that offenders transporting a dead body are subject to time, distance, speed, weather, geographical, and effort constraints (Häkkänen et al., 2007), it is not surprising that in the current study, most offenders did not travel to dispose of the body, but rather, left it at the murder site. Similarly, as most sexual homicides are committed by strangers, it is possible that as suggested by Häkkänen et al. (2007), offenders see no rationale for making the effort to dump the body at a different location. Offenders with stranger victims may perceive the risk of moving the victim's body to be greater than that of being linked to the crime should they simply leave the body at the attack location". Research Gate. The distance traveled by the murderer of Donna Lass to dispose of her body appears to indicate a desire to delay the analysis of her murder, in which family, friends and work colleagues would inevitably become the first port of call for investigators. A complete stranger, with no prior links to Donna Lass, will be less likely to feel the need for concealment. The distance from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino (now the Golden Nugget) to the area of Camp Spaulding and Yuba Gap is approximately 80 miles. The phone call to Gordon Petrovich at the casino claiming Donna Lass had left town for a family illness is extremely likely to have been placed to diffuse any concern when Donna Lass failed to return to work. This would buy the killer more time to relocate the body and clean up any incriminating evidence. The need to buy time until the police come knocking is far more relevant to somebody known to Donna Lass than a stranger.   

The Sierra Club is an environmental organization that has been in existence for 132 years, spanning all US 50 states. The club is known for engaging in two main activities: promoting and guiding outdoor recreational activities, which is done throughout the United States but primarily in California, and political activism to promote environmental causes. After trawling through newspapers.com from the 1950s, but primarily the 1960s, it became clear that Clair Tappaan Lodge Sierra Club was not only a meeting point for Sierra Club members wanting to explore the rugged and beautiful countryside of this area, but was well known to ordinary members of the public who visited the Donner Pass Ski  Ranch, which sits one mile east, and whose grounds extend north and west towards Clair Tappaan Lodge.

​Sierra Club members from San Francisco and the Bay Area could make reservations at the Clair Tappaan Lodge by visiting 1050 Mills Tower at 220 Bush Street, San Francisco, which provided chartered bus trips. This was a national office from 1931 to 1975. The Mills Tower location is only 3,400 feet from the once residence of Melvin Belli, who lived at 1228 Montgomery Street, which would receive a letter from the Zodiac Killer on December 20th 1969 (thanks to Jibberjabber for this). The Clair Tappaan Lodge (15 miles west of Lake Tahoe), was (and is) the predominant "Sierra Club" in this region, leaving little doubt that the Zodiac Killer (or hoaxer) was referencing this Sierra Club when affixing this newspaper cutting to the Pines postcard on March 22nd 1971.

​I attempted to find a solid correlation between the Pines postcard and the Mary Pilker Christmas card mailed on December 27th 1974 stating "Best Wishes. St. Donna & Guardian of the Pines", by combining the Sierra Club values of environmental protection and the wording "Guardian of the Pines". Although my finding was three years subsequent to the 1974 Christmas card, I wondered whether this phrase was used in previous years by parties concerned with forestry preservation.

​On October 28th 1977, the "Press of Atlantic City" newspaper ran an article about the Pinelands Environmental Council in respect to the Pine Barrens, stretching over the seven counties of New Jersey. It read "As the official guardian of the pines, I'm afraid we lost valuable time". The Sierra Club had an active interest in the preservation of the Pine Barrens during the relevant period to both the Pines postcard and Mary Pilker Christmas card. On the left is one example from 1971. Could the Zodiac Killer have been suggesting that Donna Lass being buried amongst the pines, was somehow looking over and protecting them in the afterlife?

The Zodiac Killer, having a voracious appetite for trawling the newspaper columns, would very likely have been aware of the Clair Tappaan Lodge Sierra Club and its activities, including its involvement in caring for the environment. The Sierra Club meetings and trips were heavily featured in the Bay Area newspapers (and vicinity) on a continuous basis. Various examples have been presented below. Some people will attempt to downplay the Sierra Club pasting on the Pines postcard as the Clair Tappaan Lodge, explaining that we cannot be sure this was the intended "Sierra Club". While we cannot be certain, the overwhelming evidence suggests that this was the location insinuated by the designer of the postcard, bearing in mind its sender included an advertisement of "Forest Pines at Incline" Village. So, was the Zodiac Killer aware of the Clair Tappaan Lodge through the newspapers, through visiting the Donner Ski Ranch as a tourist/hiker, or was he a member of the Sierra Club in the Bay Area?  

As stated previously on this website, many Zodiac researchers have floated the idea that the punch-hole in the Pines postcard was the likely burial or disposal site of Donna Lass - with the phrase "around in the snow" (pasted upside down) suggesting this as a possibility. If we invert the postcard to correct this anomaly, we are presented with a "burial site" west of Clair Tappaan Lodge of an undetermined distance (ignoring any measurements of the postcard). If the postcard was meant to be flipped 180 degrees, then we not only have a "burial site" west of Clair Tappaan Lodge, but a "burial site" exactly 270 degrees west of Clair Tappaan Lodge, as presented by the inverted postcard (which has the pasted Sierra Club directly in line with the punch-hole).
However, caution must be applied to any analysis achieved with hindsight (in this instance, the approximate location of Donna Lass' remains). Credit to Howard Davis for providing me with the Mary Pilker Christmas card. 

FURTHER READING: THE BOISE CASCADE CHRISTMAS CARD TO MARY PILKER IN 1974?

We don't know for certain the author of the March 22nd 1971 Pines postcard, but for the purpose of this article let's assume it was the Zodiac Killer. Why would the murderer of five choose the Boise Cascade Company "Forest Pines at Incline" advertisement to use on this communication? The identifier for this advertisement was the pasted text of "LAKE TAHOE" and "Peek through the Pines". So was the Zodiac Killer employed by Boise Cascade, did he buy a property in the area, or was the advertisement simply chosen at random for directional purposes to the burial or deposition site of Donna Lass? 

Sixteen months before the Pines postcard was mailed, during several weeks in November 1969, somebody claiming to be the Zodiac Killer telephoned school bus threats to Incline Village and Tahoe City, mobilizing deputies to patrol schools and bus routes in the area. There may have been a fair number of hoax Zodiac calls throughout the years, but this person claimed to be the Zodiac Killer and threatened Incline Village by Lake Tahoe, nearly 1 1/2 years prior to the mailing of the Pines postcard which contained an advertisement of Incline Village. 

Two years prior to the mailing of the Pines postcard, in January 1969, the Nevada County Planning Comission gave the green light for a multi-million dollar development on the fringe of the "Lake of the Pines" subdivision. The Auburn Journal reported "The commission's decision will allow U.S. Land Company to construct, initially, a 10,000 square-foot building and an air strip for use by Arvin Industries. Approximately 75 persons will be employed by the plant when it opens, but upwards of 500 are envisioned for the payroll". 

In March 1972 (see left), the Sacramento Bee reported that "Lake of the Pines" property owners had accepted Boise Cascade's offer of recreational facilities, having bought out the original "Lake of the Pines" developer, Western Lake Properties. Boise Cascade marketed the lots to older workers in the Bay Area and Southern California.
The Sacramento Bee and other Bay Area newspapers ran advertisements for "California's newest recreational idea" from 1969, promoting swimming, boating, golfing, fishing and water skiing. One advertisement read "Build on one of Lake of the Pines beautiful waterfront lots".

There are only two likely Zodiac Killer communications mailed about Donna Lass. The Pines postcard mailed on March 22nd 1971 used "Peek through the Pines", with the author of the December 27th 1974 Christmas card to Mary Pilker (sister of Donna Lass) writing "Best Wishes. St. Donna & Guardian of the Pines" (with Pines beginning with a capital letter).

​Bearing in mind that the remains of Donna Lass were found in the area of Camp Spaulding and Yuba Gap in 1986, heavily blanketed in Pine trees, I considered the possibility the author of the Christmas card was hinting that her remains would be found in Pine country, but giving us a clue by using words from a second Boise Cascade project. The Zodiac Killer took "Peek through the Pines" from the Boise Cascade advertisement in 1971, so did he use three words from the Boise Cascade adverisements for "Lake of the Pines" to fashion the wording for the Christmas card to Mary Pilker in December 1974? Using "of the Pines" from "Lake of the Pines" (which also began with a capital letter). The Pines postcard (1971) and Christmas card (1974) would therefore contain seven of the eight words in "Peek through the Pines" and "Lake of the Pines", taken from two Boise Cascade advertisements. These two projects by Boise Cascade at Auburn and Incline Village were bisected by the site where the remains of Donna Lass were found.

The following month, on Saturday, December 13th 1969 at 9:45pm, an unknown individual carrying a flashlight and shotgun, approached a young couple, Heidi Hoffman (16) and Lenny Parsons (19), who had parked their vehicle at the terminus of Saddle Road by Heavenly Valley (1.85 miles from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino). They were sitting on nearby rocks, close to their vehicle, when the gunman began shooting. 

In a seemingly unprovoked attack, Hoffman was struck by 40 pellets, with Parsons being hit 7 times. Officers would later retrieve 12-guage shells from the road. Both victims would survive the attack, but were unable to offer a reason why they may have been targeted. View newspaper article from the Sacramento Bee on December 15th 1969. ​

Many newspaper articles and Zodiac researchers over the years have speculated that the "around in the snow" phrase pasted upside down onto the Pines card (along with the punch-hole in the top right corner) was a clue to the burial or disposal site of Donna Lass. But the way the card is viewed it appears incorrect from the standpoint of the Clair Tappaan Lodge "Sierra Club", which sits close to Donner Pass Road and Interstate 80. The only two things on the postcard that appear specific are the punch-hole and "Sierra Club", which sit alongside each other.

The Zodiac Killer made a conscious decision to paste the wording "around in the snow" upside down, so one would like to think this has a purpose, in the form of a clue. Maybe if we had righted the postcard by inverting it through 180 degrees, the burial or deposition site of Donna would have become clearer. In other words, turn the postcard upside down to reveal where the killer placed the body. This now places the punch-hole west of the pasted "Sierra Club".
​
Let us imagine that the murderer of Donna Lass (whether Zodiiac or not) was the creator of the Pines card. Why would the person who created this postcard place "Sierra Club" on the postcard if it had no meaning or specificity? One would like to think it had a purpose. If the murderer had passed the "lake tahoe areas" on the west side of the lake, he may have opted to take the Donner Pass Road, rather than a major route such as Interstate 80 with Donna Lass (either dead or alive) inside his vehicle. This route would have taken him directly past the signage for the Clair Tappaan Lodge Sierra Club en route to the Camp Spaulding area, to either murder the young nurse, or dispose of her remains. If we assume (like many have) that the punch-hole in the Pines postcard was her burial site or the location of her remains, then it would be important for the murderer to provide us with something relative to this location on the postcard, so we could work out her final resting place. The Sierra Club of Clair Tappaan Lodge may have been his choice. But why not any other landmark or place name en route to the Camp Spaulding area?

Most are fairly confident that the designer of the Pines postcard acquired the "Forest Pines at Incline" advertisement from either the San Francisco Chronicle or San Francisco Examiner newspaper on March 19th 1971, because these have used a capital "P" in "Peek". If the Pines card creator was also the murderer - and he knew the route he took the day he drove Donna Lass to the Camp Spaulding area - then the only way he can give us a clue to Donna's location, is to search the newspapers for something relevant to the route he traveled. So, I further examined the San Francisco Examiner on March 19th 1971, that the killer may have read.

BIG NEWS IN THE DONNA LASS CASE- ZODIAC SPEAKING PODCAST

The San Francisco Examiner newspaper of March 19th 1971 (3 days before the Pines card was mailed) carried the Forest Pines advertisement on page 15. Six pages earlier, on page 9 of the March 19th 1971 newspaper, there was an article entitled "Sierra Club Backs Park Tax Boost" about the San Francisco Bay Chapter of the Sierra Club (using the correct font).

Based upon the measurements of the San Francisco Examiner's pages, I calculated that the "Sierra Club" headline measured about 1.65 inches in width, which was the same as the "Sierra Club" pasted on the Pines postcard. If the murderer had been reading this newspaper through its main pages on March 19th 1971, he could easily have chosen to cut out the "Sierra Club" on page 9 to represent the Clair Tappaan Lodge that he drove past en route to the Camp Spaulding area, The mention of "Sierra Club" in the newspaper may have been the closest thing he could find to represent something about the route he traveled that day. It would also provide the viewer of the Pines postcard with something relative to his burial or deposition site.

The distance between the pasted "Sierra Club" and the center of the punch-hole is 2.39 inches, so using the standard width of a US postcard (5.8 inches) and the Mount Diablo map scale of 6.4 miles to the inch, I was able to calculate that the distance in miles between the pasted "Sierra Club" and the center of the punch-hole was 15.3 miles (2.39 X 6.4). When I measured the distance on Google maps between Clair Tappaan Lodge and Camp Spaulding, it was exactly the same - 15.3 miles by crow. If my interpretation of the Pines postcard is correct, its designer was the killer of Donna Lass. If my interpretation is wrong, then we are back to square one.​

What we do know for certain is that the author of the Pines postcard pated "pass Lake Tahoe areas" onto the advertisement, and the remains of Donna Lass were found near Camp Spaulding (or in the close vicinity). So anyone transporting Donna Lass via the east or west side of Lake Tahoe would have to head due west after they reached the north side of the lake to reach the Camp Spaulding area. This would take them right past the Sierra Club of Clair Tappaan Lodge on Donner Pass Road, if this was the route chosen. If they took Interstate 80, then they would have passed approximately one mile north of Clair Tappaan Lodge. Either way, the route chosen by the killer to reach Camp Spaulding (and Yuba Gap) had a "Sierra Club" close to his direction of travel (or on the road itself). So was the decision to paste "Sierra Club" onto the Pines postcard just a lucky guess by somebody unconnected to the murder? And why did the author of the Pines postcard choose to use a "Forest Pines at Incline" advertisement?

If the murderer of Donna Lass is going to give us clues to her burial or deposition site, then he has to give us a beginning or reference point from which to work with. This reference point could have been the "Forest Pines at Incline" site by Juanita Drive. The second important reference point was the pasted "Sierra Club", with Clair Tappaan Lodge "Sierra Club" located 22 miles due west  To arrive at Clair Tappaan Lodge "Sierra Club" we have to travel from Incline Village and "pass the Lake Tahoe areas" on its northern side by driving west. The third reference point is the punch-hole, that many believe would reveal the location of her remains. Irrespective of inverting the postcard, or measuring distances on its face, if we started our journey at Incline Village, passed the Lake Tahoe areas and headed towards the Clair Tappaan Lodge "Sierra Club", we would be driving westward in the direction of Camp Spaulding (or Yuba Gap), which is 15.3 miles from Clair Tappaan Lodge. Donna Lass could have been discarded by her killer anywhere in California, Nevada, or a myriad of other locations - yet despite this - the author of the Pines postcard took us to the northern edge of the lake at Incline Village and instructed us to "pass the Lake Tahoe areas" on a heading west towards Clair Tappaan Lodge (and possibly beyond). Could somebody with no knowledge of the murder of Donna Lass have set us on this trajectory by chance, when so many other disposal options were available? 

FOLLOW UP ARTICLE: TWO POSTCARDS, TWO BURIAL SITES?  

From January 1st 1971 to March 22nd 1971 (Pines postcard mailing) I could only find the complete phrase of "around in the snow" three times from newspapers in California. This was performed by searching the newspapers.com database. Strangely, two of these were found on January 1st 1971 and January 22nd 1971 from the Paradise Post in Paradise, California, both on the Editorial Feature Page.  

In the previous article regarding the design of the Pines card, we measured the distance between between the pasted "Sierra Club" (thought to be Clair Tappaan Lodge) and the center of the punch-hole. This distance, based upon the standard postcard size in the US of 5.8 X 4.2 inches, measured 2.39 inches. Using the scale of 6.4 miles to the inch on the Phillips 66 map, mailed by the Zodiac Killer with his Button letter on June 26th 1970, we can convert this distance to miles. Multiplying 2.39 by 6.4, we get a distance of 15.3 miles between the pasted Clair Tappaan Lodge "Sierra Club" and the center of the punch-hole. If the punch-hole was designed to indicate a burial or deposition site, the author of the postcard (or Zodiac) was claiming Donna Lass was to be found in the Camp Spaulding area (which is 15.3 miles by crow from Clair Tappaan Lodge). We don't yet know the exact location of her remains, but a postcard identifying the region of Camp Spaulding would be pretty damning evidence of prior knowledge. This, of course, depends on the above interpretation being correct. It would mean that the sole purpose of the Pines card was to identify a deposition or burial site containing the remains of Donna Lass.

​Whether or not you believe this interpretation, it is vitally important that you consider the design of the Monticello card, mailed by the Zodiac Killer on July 13th 1971. This postcard did identify the burial site of one of Zodiac's previously claimed victims - that of Kathy Snoozy - who the Zodiac Killer claimed alongside Debra Furlong, when he added August to his chronological victim count in the "Dripping Pen" card on November 8th 1969. The Monticello card (like the Pines card) contained a message of pasted newspaper text, reading "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". This text was identifying the name of Kathy Bilek by using the namesake of one of his previously claimed victims.

​Kathy Bilek was murdered in the Villa Montalvo woods on April 11th 1971, hence the words "In The Woods Dies April". The Zodiac Killer also gave us a clue to the name of Kathy Bilek by identifying her namesake, Kathy Snoozy, who was buried in the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose. The murder of Kathy Bilek in the woods in April was near to the Monticello neighborhood. The three murder victims of Snoozy, Furlong and Bilek were all credited to Karl Francis Werner, who was arrested and questioned about their murders on April 29th 1971. The Zodiac Killer, having previously insinuated himself responsible for the murders of Snoozy & Furlong on November 8th 1969, now felt compelled to also claim the murder of Kathy Bilek in the Monticello card. The fact that Kathy Bilek, "in the woods died April", with "Monticello" containing the burial site of Kathy Snoozy, who were both murdered by Karl Francis Werner (along with Debra Furlong) and claimed by the Zodiac Killer, should not be overlooked when examining the Pines card mailed four months earlier. 

The Monticello card contained pasted newspaper text, never directly named Kathy Bilek as the victim he was claiming, and gave us directions to the burial site of one of his previously claimed victims (Kathy Snoozy). The Pines card used the same template by failing to mention the name of Donna Lass (but insinuating her as the victim) - and may have used the newspaper cuttings to direct us to the deposition or burial site of the Lake Tahoe nurse, just like he did with Kathy Snoozy at Monticello. If the Zodiac Killer was the author of the Pines card, then he retrospectively claimed the lives of Donna Lass, Kathy Snoozy, Debra Furlong and Kathy Bilek months after their murders. He would retrospectively claim the murder of Cheri Jo Bates also. We may now have two pasted postcards, both possibly giving us directions to the remains of a murder victim claimed by the Zodiac Killer.

FOLLOW UP ARTICLE: DRIVING PAST THE SIERRA CLUB

"ZODIAC" PSEUDONYM WRITTEN ON TOMBSTONE 
Read more: The Monticello card and The San Jose Murders 

When the Zodiac Killer challenged us to find a bomb in his June 26th 1970 "Button" letter, he provided a Phillips 66 map with a scale of 6.4 miles to the inch to aid us. The standard postcard size in the US is 5.8 X 4.2 inches. The distance (by crow) between Clair Tappaan Lodge "Sierra Club" and Camp Spaulding is 15.3 miles, so if we divide 15.3 by 6.4 we get the number of inches on a map (if using the same scale). It works out to 2.39 inches between the Clair Tappaan Lodge "Sierra Club" and Camp Spaulding. If the Pines postcard was standard size, the Zodiac Killer should have placed the end of his pasted "Sierra Club" 2.39 inches from the center of the punch-hole. The Zodiac Killer did separate them by that distance on the postcard (approximately 2.4 inches). That would mean the remains of Donna Lass, according to the measurement on the postcard, were to be found 15.3 miles or 2.39 inches from Clair Tappaan Lodge in a westerly direction. Which they were. Of course, this analysis was done with hindsight. 

The distance (by crow) from the Clair Tappaan Lodge "Sierra Club" to Yuba Gap is 14.32 miles, so if we divide 14.32 by 6.4 we get 2.24 inches in map distance from the Clair Tappaan Lodge "Sierra Club" to Yuba Gap. This still places Yuba Gap inside the punch-hole on the postcard (check below). There is reasonable leeway on the east-west axis either side of Camp Spaulding where her remains could be pinpointed more accurately in the future, and they would still fall inside the punch-hole on the Pines card. We also know, according to newspaper reports, that the remains were identified approximately one mile northeast of Interstate 80, alongside a mountainous road (likely Lake Spaulding Road) by Melvin Bennett on his way to Yuba Gap and Lake Valley Reservoir. This area falls comfortably inside the punch-hole. There is a 1.80 mile stretch of road that can fall inside the punch-hole (anywhere from 14,20 miles to 16.00 miles from Clair Tappaan Lodge). Whatever the case, the 2.39 inch measurement between the pasted "Sierra Club" (if Clair Tappaan Lodge) and the center of the punch-hole, can be shown to point towards the location of Camp Spaulding (irrespective of the exact location of her remains). This distance may not have any relevance if my interpretation of Zodiac's thought process and the design of the postcard is wrong.  

FOLLOW UP ARTICLE: TWO POSTCARDS, TWO BURIAL SITES? 

Using all the descriptors available in multiple newspapers, my best estimation is that the remains found by Melvin Bennett as he traveled towards Yuba Gap to fish at the nearby Lake Valley Reservoir, were found approximately 500-600 feet beyond Camp Spaulding, alongside Lake Spaulding Road (one mile northeast of Interstate 80). This is one of the rare mountainous roads accessible by vehicle on the north side of the I-80 near Yuba Gap. If the abductor/murderer had traveled from South Lake Tahoe "past the Lake Tahoe areas" on the west side of the lake, they would have driven 26 miles west (23 miles by crow) along Interstate 80 and then Highway 20, before heading north on Lake Spaulding Road for about 2,500 feet to dispose of the remains or possibly kill Donna Lass. An abduction from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino at about 01:50am, to make this journey in one continuous sequence, would place the murderer and victim at Camp Spaulding at about 03:20am. How realistic is this scenario? Or was Donna Lass taken elsewhere, murdered and deposited in the Camp Spaulding region at a later time?

​A video of the Lake Spaulding Campground and an Aerial View.of Lake Spaulding are available on YouTube. The Lake Spaulding Dam is owned by Pacific Gas & Electric, and impounds the South Fork of the Yuba River, which originates at Lake Angela, 2,600 feet from Donner Pass. 

​The route along Interstate 80 and Highway 20 does have other options well in advance of Camp Spaulding, if the intention was the disposal of a body or murder. Billy Mack Road at the Johnson Canyon Trailhead, Boreal Ridge Road at the Castle Peak Trailhead, Castle Creek Drive, Towle Mountain Drive and the Lola Montez Road, all sit within 11 miles of the killer joining Interstate 80. There were plenty of other options even earlier on California State Route 89 (alongside Lake Tahoe) and east past Truckee, Yet the perpetrator in this case headed 26 miles along Interstate 80 and Highway 20 to Camp Spaulding at Yuba Gap. Does this indicate the killer had prior knowledge of this location, and relied on his previous history of this area as the ideal spot for intimacy and seclusion? Or did the killer live close (or a limited distance) to the deposition site? The Lake Spaulding Road location is extremely remote and blanketed by Pine trees.

Lake Spaulding and Lake Valley Reservoir, 2.25 miles apart and close to major commuter routes, provide excellent camping, fishing and boating to the public. So, is our suspect somebody who had regularly frequented these recreation areas, that also had a connection to the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino and/or the life of Donna Lass. The abduction of Donna Lass from a hotel and casino close to the end of her shift could be considered a targetted attack by somebody she knew, or somebody that knew of her. I am not convinced about the directional accuracy of the March 22nd 1971 "Pines Card", despite having no doubt that it was designed by the Zodiac Killer. Most things point to a Zodiac Killer who knew nothing regarding the whereabouts or fate of the missing nurse, Donna Lass. Which is why the Pines card only retrospectively claimed he "sought" her when she lived in San Francisco, just like he did with Kathy Bilek in the Monticello card. The Zodiac Killer didn't even increase his victim count in the 13-Hole postcard on October 5th 1970, one month after her abduction. 

The abductor and murderer of Donna Lass seemingly chose the Lake Spaulding area near Yuba Gap to (more than likely) dispose of her remains, which were found seventy miles from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino (now the Golden Nugget Lake Hotel & Casino). Is the distance he was prepared to travel to make Donna Lass vanish an indication of his connection to her? Hopefully more information will be revealed in the coming months and years, that finally answers the questions put forth in this article.  PART ONE  PART TWO.

There is very little evidence to suggest that the Zodiac Killer had any involvement in the abduction and murder of Donna Lass in 1970, but let's examine the March 22nd 1971 Pines card and the March 13th 1971 Los Angeles letter, mailed nine days earlier. If we look at the Pines card from right to left, it indicates that we have to "pass the Lake Tahoe areas", locate the "Sierra Club" and then search "around in the snow" for any remains. Assuming these were a guide to law enforcement from the South Lake Tahoe Police Department at Fremont Avenue and Mono Way (on the south tip of the lake), they would have had to travel on California State Route 89 "past the Lake Tahoe areas" to Interstate 80. They would then have to travel west to the "Sierra Club" at Clair Tappaan Lodge, and then further west on Interstate 80 an indeterminate distance to locate the remains of Donna Lass "around in the snow". This is giving a generous interpretation to the Pines card, now knowing that the partial remains of Donna Lass were found near Yuba Gap and the Camp Spaulding area. This could be argued as hindsight.

Before you read on, check the newspaper article on the left from the Elko Daily Free Press on November 17th 2000 regarding South Lake Tahoe Detective Tom Conner

There is a high degree of probability that the Zodiac Killer was using the Boise Cascade Incline Village advertisement as a template to identify the Clair Tappaan Lodge "Sierra Club" alongside Interstate 80 and Donner Pass Road..So at the very least, the Zodiac Killer had referenced a location on the northwest side of Lake Tahoe, heading towards the location where the remains of Donna Lass were eventually found on December 31st 1985 and early January 1986 (reported in the newspapers as 1986).

​His previous communication, the Los Angeles letter, was not only postmarked the same day as the general release in the USA of the movie "Vanishing Point", but the letter mimicked the wording from the January trailer of the car chase movie, in which "a radio host from KOW stated "And there goes the Challenger being chased by the Blue, Blue Meanies on wheels. They want to get him and put him away, but there'll have to catch him first". The author of the Los Angeles letter (Zodiac) stated "If the Blue Meannies are evere going to catch me, they had best get off their fat asses + do something". The beginning and ending of the movie (in which the main protagonist, Kowalski, met his death) was portrayed as occurring in Cisco, California (alongside Interstate 80), where the remains of Donna Lass were found close by.

​Consequently, we have two consecutive Zodiac Killer communications (9 days apart) containing material that can be linked to Interstate 80 on the northwest side of Lake Tahoe. Clair Tappaan Lodge and Cisco are 10.55 miles apart (as the crow flies). Of course, the appearance of Cisco in the movie may have had no bearing on the Zodiac Killer when referencing the Vanishing Point movie in the Los Angeles letter (if you believe the premise of the movie connection). It could easily be argued that either connection is fortuitous and coincidental. 

Only the skull and jawbone of Donna Lass has reportedly been found, which could suggest her remains were dispersed by wildlife, or she was murdered elsewhere, dismembered and her remains scattered in the area. The Zodiac Killer didn't necessarily imply a burial site on the Pines card, only that her remains may have been found "around in the snow" (if that is the correct interpretation).  PART ONE. PART THREE

A jawbone (and all teeth) were found close to Interstate 80 and Highway 20, near Camp Spaulding in Placer County on December 31st 1985 (reported in the newspapers as 1986) by a fisherman traveling towards Lake Valley Reservoir via Yuba Gap. A human skull was found near to the other remains in January 1986 during follow-up searches headed by Deputy Lowell Carleton. These bones remained unidentified until December 2023, when it was finally determined through DNA to be that of Donna Lass, her fate unknown for almost 53 years and 4 months. The South Lake Tahoe Police Department has notified the surviving members of the Lass family. There may be an interesting connection to the Los Angeles letter, mailed by the Zodiac Killer on March 13th 1971. ​

The Zodiac Killer sourced his pasted text from the newspapers when creating the 13-Hole postcard and Pines card, keeping some phrases intact. When he created the March 22nd 1971 Pines card he seemingly took the complete phrase of "Peek through the pines" from the March 19th 1971 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle, using an advert from the Boise Cascade Company project at Incline Village, where construction had just begun on the development. It was considered that missing nurse, Donna Lass, may have been buried at this location. 

The​ Boise Cascade Company is an American manufacturer of wood products and wholesale distributor of building materials, headquartered in Boise, Idaho, that in the mid-1960s developed an even more diverse portfolio including ownership of a motor home manufacturer, a cruise line, involvement in real estate and recreation projects, and an acquisition in the engineering and construction business for major utilities. It makes total sense that, where possible, the Zodiac Killer would source his newspaper cuttings from the publications that he bought regularly, from within stories that caught his eye, or had some relevance to him. What interested me, was that Boise Cascade dealt in real estate, bearing in mind the sister communication to the Pines card.

Mailed on July 13th 1971, the Zodiac Killer designed the Monticello card, which virtually mimicked the Pines card in every way. It was created with directions to pinpoint the burial site of Kathie Snoozy in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose, where her and Debra Furlong were murdered on August 3rd 1969. Spelled Kathy Snoozy in the newspapers, she was the namesake of Kathy Bilek, who was the focus of the Monticello card that read "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". Kathy Bilek was murdered near Monticello, in Saratoga, in the woods on April 11th 1971. The Zodiac Killer was now claiming all three victims in light of the recent arrest of Karl Francis Werner, who he was calling a "phony" because of having Snoozy & Furlong taken away from his claimed "Aug" victim count in the Dripping Pen card. But where would the Zodiac Killer have sourced the pasted text for the Monticello card that was relevant to his reading material and location - and considering the possibility he may have used phrases rather than single words to design the card?

I first looked at the phrase "Near Monticello" with some interesting results. The date range between April 11th 1971 and July 13th 1971 took priority, because these were the dates of Kathy Bilek's murder and the mailing date of the Monticello card. There were extremely limited results from newspapers.com, but one from the Napa Register caught my eye. Just like the "real estate" advertisement for the Forest Pines condominiums at Incline Village featured on the Pines card, a real estate advertisement appeared approximately seven weeks later in the Napa Register, on May 6th 1971 (and subsequent editions), beginning less than one month after the murder of Kathy Bilek. It was a real estate advertisement from Lee Chesnutt of Napa Valley Properties (1400 Second Street) for a guest cottage and grounds NEAR MONTICELLO PARK, a neighborhood in Napa, California. A second result from the Napa Register on May 14th 1971 was placed by Don R. Stufft Realty of 1517 Jefferson Street for two homes near Monticello Park. The real estate offices of 1400 Second Street and 1517 Jefferson Street  are only 438 meters and 564 meters from the 1231 Main Street, Napa payphone, where the Zodiac Killer placed his call after the Lake Berryessa attack. Monticello Park is a neighborhood in Napa, California. and mostly features large homes that are very high value. I am sure that the Zodiac Killer would have known that Monticello Park was likely a good source for the material he required to design the Monticello card.

However, there is another news story of relevance from the Sacramento Bee on March 8th 1971. Although one month before the murder of Kathy Bilek, this is the sort of news that may have stuck with the Zodiac Killer. Entitled "Vacaville Woman's Body Found", it stated "LAKE BERRYESSA - A Woman who drowned in a boating accident has been identified as Mrs. Deaun Brown, 41, of Vacaville. Her husband, Kenneth, 65, also is presumed drowned, but his body has not been found. The couple's 10-foot boat capsized Thursday near Monticello dam". Knowing that Kathy Snoozy was buried in the Oak Hill Memorial Park at 300 Curtner Avenue in the neighborhood of Monticello, the Zodiac Killer could easily have remembered this story about two Lake Berryessa drownings just 4 months earlier. The Bay Area murderer had previously exhibited great ability in sourcing dated newspaper articles to use as cuttings in his previous postcards. Whether he just stockpiled newspapers, took cuttings, worked at a newspaper office, or sold newspapers, is something to consider. 

The only "dies April" combination I could find, was again, relevant to another crime associated with the Zodiac Killer. Kathleen Johns claimed she was abducted by the Zodiac Killer on March 22nd 1970, near Modesto. She stated that the man took her on a 1 1/2 to 2 hour journey around the outskirts of Tracy, California. The only newspaper article I could find of any relevance was from the Tracy Press on March 31st 1971, nearly two weeks prior to the murder of Kathy Bilek. It told of negotiations between Southern Pacific Railroad and the Railpax corporation, and the discontinuation of valley Daylight trains.  Although not ideal, it is close enough to the timeframe to be considered a possibility. I suppose, when the Monticello card surfaces (if ever), we will see whether any of the above examples have promise. But what is important: is that all the cuttings sourced have some significance to areas of Zodiac activity.